


One's Own Failings

by 2babyturtles



Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Sherlock Holmes (Downey films), Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: Angst, Arthur Conan Doyle Canon References, Arthur Conan Doyle Style, Death, Drabble, Gen, John-centric, POV Sherlock Holmes, Possible Sherlock Holmes/John Watson - Freeform, Sherlock Holmes & John Watson Friendship, Tragedy, possible johnlock - Freeform, very short
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-25
Updated: 2017-08-25
Packaged: 2018-12-19 15:41:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11900850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/2babyturtles/pseuds/2babyturtles
Summary: There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact. ~ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle





	One's Own Failings

_There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact._

_~A.C.D._

* * *

It should have seemed inevitable to Sherlock Holmes that to bring a man who cared so much more for others than himself on excursions which would so often put them both in danger, was, at some point, to lose that man. And perhaps it did. Perhaps indeed as he sat, watching the light on the wall as the sun rose and set without so much as a shift in his position, Sherlock knew that he had done precisely what he knew would eventually kill him. That is, of course, because it killed John Watson.

Sitting alone with an empty chair and a broken violin for company was hardly a comfort for a man who had once known the chair to host the world and the violin to host its songs. Rarely had Sherlock felt so utterly sure that he had failed as when he realized that these two items, rather mundane in and of themselves, had become symbols. Unfortunately, he only successfully realized this when they became symbols of a life he previously led, and no longer of the one he did. It seems impossible to imagine that Sherlock Holmes might have failed to recognize anything. The man was entirely capable of finding patterns, trends, and symbols among any of the most mundane things. It should, therefore, be utterly confusing and appalling that he had failed so entirely in this endeavor when it mattered the very most to him.

He felt quite certain that no man might himself rise from the grave. However, considering the evidence that he himself had provided, he could not entirely put out the hope that perhaps John Watson was such a man who could. There were few times in his life that Sherlock intentionally deceived himself. He found it a repulsive idea to even consider. But of course, it is much less painful to entertain such a repulsive idea than it is to admit that one’s own failings cost the life of the only person one ever loved, or indeed ever would.


End file.
